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Pork Breast Bones: What can you do with them?

Dan Clapson - Wednesday, September 26, 2012

If you’re asking yourself: ‘What the hell are these things?’ you are not alone!

While shopping at my local grocery store the other day, I was perusing the meat department and came across a few packages of these guys. At first, I thought they were thick chunks of ribs, but upon further investigation, they were labeled ‘pork breast bones’. Hm, very interesting. They didn’t look overly meaty, but being an adventurous home cook, I figured I must be able to make something out of them. Aside from always being up for a challenge, the price point on these bones were next to nothing, about  two dollars a pack. So, even if I ended up making a disastrous meal, I wouldn’t have broke the bank.

After getting home with my groceries, I reached out to my friend, Shawn Greenwood, executive chef of Taste here in Calgary. He’s always making interesting dishes out of different cuts of pork, so I figured he would have some tips. While I was waiting for him to send me some tips, I became impatient (my self-diagnosed A.D.D.) and decided to try and whip up a pork breast bone stew in my slow cooker. There was some meat on these bones and I was determined to devour it!

I went to my go-to stew ingredients: onions, garlic,carrots, potatoes swiss chard, red wine, chill powder (makes everything better) and some other miscellaneous spices. Tossed everything in the slow cooker and waited. What came out, just in time for dinner, was a favourable stew that was light on meat, but huge on flavour. The slow cooked bones added a nice richness to the stew, which was great. The little meat that I could get my hands on was fall apart tender. I am going to try this stew some time again soon, on a cold fall evening here in Calgary, but add some extra chunks of pork into the mix to satisfy the carnivore inside of me.

Sean did get back to me while the stew was cooking, suggesting I use the bones as a base for broth or a soup. Great idea! When it comes to Dan Vs. Pork Breast Bones, round two, I’ll be sure to go that route. Since it’s slowly getting chillier out, I think pork breast bones might just be the perfect base for a Split Pea and Pork Soup. What do you think?